Aurally, the change was welcome. The normally-aspirated V8s of the Indy Racing League/IndyCar 1997-2011 era, at high revs, tended to sound as if 20-plus Canada geese were locked in one’s tympanic cavities and never needed to draw breath, and this could have a near nausea-inducing effect when the sound was bouncing off the concrete walls and buildings around a street course. The arrival of the 2.2-liter V6 turbos smoothed off that edge, and while still loud – particularly when going along the echo chamber of the back straight at Long Beach – it’s no longer unbearable.
But the most welcome aspect of the switch in engine formulas was that it lured back Chevrolet, which had withdrawn from the series at the end of 1993, so IndyCar had an engine war, a second OEM to compete against Honda. Actually, it also briefly gained a third, but the less said about Judd’s effort on behalf of Lotus, the better.
